and the Toad

The Toad said to the Rat, "I can do more than thou."

The Rat replied to the Toad: "Thou dost not know how to run; having
flung thyself anywhere thou stoppest there. This is all thy run; and
wilt thou say that thou canst do more than I?"

When the Toad had heard the words of the Rat he said to him: "If,
according to thy opinion, I cannot do more than thou, thou shalt see
what I will begin to do to-morrow; and if thou beginnest and doest the
same, without anything happening to thee, thou canst do more than I."

The Rat agreed to the Toad's proposal, and went to see the Toad.

The Toad prepared himself, and when the sun reached about the middle,
between the horizon and the zenith, the great men felt its heat, and
went to sit down in the shade of a tree. The Toad on seeing this,
arose, went to where the men were sitting, and passed through the midst
of them. When the men observed him they said: "If you touch him, your
hand will become bitter." So no one touched him, and the Toad passed
through and went home.

Then the Toad said to the Rat, "Didst thou see me? Now if thou canst
do what I do, arise, and begin to do it. I will see!"

The Rat, attending to what the toad said, got ready and the following
morning, when the sun had gained strength and the great men had stood
up and got under the shade of a tree, the Rat saw them sitting there,
and went to do what the Toad had done; but when he came to where the
men were sitting, and just went to pass through the midst of them, they
saw him, and they all took sticks, and sought to kill him: one man
attempting to kill him with a stick, struck at him, but did not hit him
well, the stick touching him only a little on the back; so he ran away
to the Toad.

On his arrival the Rat said to the Toad:

"Brother Toad, as thou wentest to where the people were sitting no one
said a word to thee, and thou camest home again with a sound skin; but
when I went, and they saw me, just as I went to pass through them they
all took sticks, and sought to kill me; and one man taking a stick and
striking at me to kill me, our Lord helped me, that the stick hit me
only a little on the back; so I ran away, and came to thee. I disputed
with thee, thinking that I could do what thou doest: now to-day I have
experienced something; to-morrow let us begin again and when I have the
experience of to-morrow, I shall be able to give thee an answer."

The Toad said to the Rat: "The th